Abstract
In this research article, a novel endoscopic system, which is suited to perform a digital inspection of the aircraft wing fuel tanks, is introduced. The aim of this work is to specifically design and develop an assisting system, called `Eeloscope’, to allow accessing and diving through an aircraft kerosene tank in a minimally invasive matter. Currently, mechanics often suffer from the harsh working environment and the arduous maintenance duties within the tank. To address such challenges and derive a tailored solution, an adapted Design Thinking (DT) process is applied. The resulting system enables a fully digital inspection and generation of 3-dimensional structural inspection data. Consequently, devices such as the Eeloscope will facilitate a more efficient and continuous inspection of fuel tanks to increase the transparency regarding the condition of hardly accessible aircraft structures and provide a work relief for mechanics at the same time.
Highlights
Regarding the process requirements and problem dimensions given by the aircraft fuel tank environment, the most suitable and relevant variant is to be selected for further development
Since this endoscopic inspection approach is entirely novel, the initial experiments are separated into different areas concerning the overall process
For experiments that evaluate the visual inspection and camera localization capabilities, a wing section cut from a scrapped Boeing 737-700 is used
Summary
The fuel tanks of an aircraft represent safety critical components, since they inhibit explosive kerosene fuel. Defects within the fuel tank have led to several fatal accidents [1,2]. An efficient and safe aircraft fuel tank maintenance is a crucial process in aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). An aircraft fuel tank is currently associated with a highly manual and labor-intensive maintenance, as it is very hard to access and uncomfortable to work in for humans. Various safety precautions and preparation tasks such as the equipment of respirators must be performed beforehand
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